The Cost Of Craving

The Cost Of Craving: The Invisible Addictions and Indoctrinations That Chain Us All

What if the most dangerous addictions aren't to drugs or alcohol - but to approval, winning, work, control, outrage, and the glowing screen in your pocket?

We think we know addiction. We imagine needles, bottles, rehab. But the chains that bind most of us today are invisible. They are woven into the fabric of our everyday lives - and society rewards them.

The book follows seven ordinary people from six continents, each trapped in a prison they don't even know exists:

• • Ezekiel, a boy from a Texas trailer who becomes a megachurch pastor - only to discover that his "calling" was really an addiction to approval and religious power.
  • Henrique, a Brazilian footballer who learns that winning isn't a goal - it's a drug that destroys everyone he loves.
  • Min-Ji, a Seoul teenager whose first Instagram like feels like love, and who will do anything - anything - to keep feeling it.
  • Kenji, a Tokyo salaryman who works himself to the brink of death, believing that suffering is virtue and rest is sin.
  • Klara, a Berlin activist whose righteous outrage becomes a weapon - one that eventually turns on her.
  • Adaeze, a Nigerian firstborn daughter whose desperate need for control costs her her marriage, her siblings, and nearly her life.

Each character starts with innocence and a noble desire. Each becomes brutal, makes despicable choices, and suffers an epic, public collapse. And each reveals the same destructive pattern - a pattern that plays out in millions of lives every single day.